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{{
<!-- {{Notability|Films|date=October 2012}} in 2 scholarly journals and a book, and reviewed in Blogcritics -->
{{Infobox film
| name = Flatland
| image = Flatland-Poster.jpg
| caption = Promotional film poster
| director = [[Ladd Ehlinger Jr.]]
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| editing = Ladd Ehlinger Jr
| studio = Flatland Productions
| distributor = FilmLadd <br />Flatland Productions<br />
| released = {{Film date|2007|01|14}}
| runtime = 95 minutes
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| gross =
}}
'''''Flatland''''' (also released as '''''Flatland: The Film''''' and '''''Flatland the film''''') is a 2007 American
==Plot==
In a two-
▲In a two-[[dimensional]] world called Flatland populated by living squares, triangles, circles and other two-dimensional shapes, it is three days until the celebration of the year 3000. A Square, [[Attorney at law (United States)|attorney at law]], struggles to instruct his son, A Hexagon, in the art of sight recognition. The lesson is interrupted by A Square's brother B, a clerk to President Circle, warning A to stay home during a meeting at the Senate of the Great Southern Republic of Flatland.
The Senate session has been called to discuss the increasing hostilities between the government and the Chromatist movement, led by Senator Chromatistes,
Against his brother's warning, A Square meets his new client, the first female charged as a Chromatist. On his way home he is caught in the melee leaving the Senate. President Circle's soldiers killed Senator Chromatistes and his supporters, sparking a riot across the city. A Square just gets home safely, then barricades his family against the chaos for the night.
Realizing that time in Spaceland is short, at least for A Square, A Sphere brings him to Messiah, Inc. to finish his education on the gospel of Three Dimensions. Enthralled by the complex world of Spaceland, A Square posits
▲Suddenly and painfully, A Square is plucked out of his dimension and into Spaceland. After the initial shock, the reality of 3 dimensions becomes clear to A Square, along with the possibility of locating his brother from his newfound vantage point. Having business himself at the Great Hall, A Sphere brings A Square to look for his brother there. On their arrival, A Sphere expounds upon three dimensions to President Circle and the Priests, who anticipated this event. After rejecting A Sphere's message and attempting to kill him, the Flatland leaders execute all who have witnessed the event, except B Square, who is imprisoned for life on pain of death in exchange for his silence while his brother watches from high above Flatland.
▲Realizing that time in Spaceland is short, at least for A Square, A Sphere brings him to Messiah, Inc. to finish his education on the gospel of Three Dimensions. Enthralled by the complex world of Spaceland, A Square posits further about 4 dimensions and so forth to A Sphere, who dismisses it as nonsense. Meanwhile, A Square's intrusion into Spaceland has become a national emergency, which prompts the Spaceland Senate to call to him to appear for a hearing, to explain this breach of protocol of bringing a Flatlander into their midst. They claim that it will be viewed as an act of, and provocation for, war by their enemies, the X-Axis.
▲During the hearing, A Square also learns that the X-Axis considers the Great Senate as weak, because they have allowed the continued existence of his own world, Flatland, which they view as an abomination. As the debate rages, an ailing A Square tries to explain his theory of multiple dimensions to an unsympathetic crowd. Air-raid sirens wail as A Square collapses from the overwhelming effects of gravity on his two-dimensional body and chaos ensues.
▲Returning to himself, A Square escapes Flatland prison and outruns the guards. Arriving home, A Square informs his wife that they are going to defect to the Northern Kingdom where he might be able to spread the gospel of three dimensions to a more open minded populace. The soldiers arrive and A Square escapes with the help of Frau A Square's “war cry” that temporarily stuns them. Before he can reach the border, A Square is cornered by the soldiers whose attempt to dismantle and segment him is thwarted by the Northern Kingdom army's attack. In the fracas, things suddenly begin to disappear as though sucked down through the fabric of Flatland until only A Square remains. He, too, begins to disappear, until there is only his eye, then a glowing point of light, which welcomes him into another dimension.
==Cast==
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|A Square
|[[square]]
|The main character; is a defense attorney and the chosen apostle to preach the Gospel of the Third Dimension.
|-
|Karen Ehlinger
|Frau A Square
|<s>line</s> slim rectangle
|A Square's wife.
|-
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Dennis Schwartz (Ozus' World) gave ''Flatland'' an "A", referring to it as "smart, without being cheeky", in taking the likely unfilmable source material, and creating a "spirited avant-garde" film.<ref name="Schwartz">{{Cite web|title=''Flatland''|publisher=Ozus' World Movie Reviews |first=Dennis |last=Schwartz|date=March 12, 2007 |url=http://www.sover.net/~ozus/flatland.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070430164853/http://www.sover.net/~ozus/flatland.htm |archive-date=2007-04-30 }}</ref> He summarized: {{blockquote|"...there's not a single thing about it that's disingenuous or unworldly or superficial. It's by a serious and gifted filmmaker who brings a light touch to his craft and does it without an ounce of pretentiousness or Hollywood phoniness or a sense of self-consciousness."<ref name="Schwartz"/>}}
Scott Green at ''[[Ain't it Cool News]]'' called it "captivating", "an enjoyable mental amusement park ride", and "something amazingly different and intriguing to watch
Aylish Wood, reviewing in ''Science Fiction Film and Television'', described the intertitles as fine for children, but "annoying" for adults, and found the math exposition to be "painless" but "a touch too long
Carl Schroeder wrote in ''The Global Intelligencer'' that the film is one of "two of the best movie versions ever made" of the story. He states that the film "preserves the biting social satire of the original story with ideas and abstract violence (bleeding polygons) not appropriate for little kids (teens will be fine)
[[Dan Schneider (writer)|Dan Schneider]] of [[Blogcritics]] gave an overall negative review. He criticized the departures by the film from Abbott's book, such as the character of the king instead being a president (who wears a crown), and the divergence into satire when A Sphere visits A Square, where the sphere is a CEO, instead of Abbott's "mystical guide". Schneider points out that where A Square's experience was originally religious, the film makes it a "wow moment used to lead into some cheap gags", and states that "the story dissolves
In ''Mathematics in Popular Culture'', Lila Marz Harper described the film as "more radical" than ''[[Flatland (2007 Johnson and Travis film)|Flatland: The Movie]]'', showing more biological detail, and even dreams. She remarked that the film "vividly mimics" Abbott's description of the physical remolding of children's bodies to conform to societal norms, and "adheres closely" to the discrimination against women in Abbott's story. She noted that some variations from the book were confusing: one of A Square's sons is a hexagon, unlike the all-pentagon siblings in Abbott's story.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-Q_2G8CiyYC&pg=PA300 |access-date=2012-10-29 |chapter=Flatland in Popular Culture |first=Lila |last=Marz Harper |title=Mathematics in Popular Culture: Essays on Appearances in Film, Fiction |editor1-last=Sklar|editor1-first= Jessica K.|editor1-link= Jessica Sklar|editor2-last= Sklar|editor2-first= Elizabeth S. |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |year=2012 |page=300 |isbn=978-0786449781}}</ref><!-- whole paragraph--><!-- incomplete, in progress. Need p. 301 -->
==References==
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[[Category:American independent films]]
[[Category:American satirical films]]
[[Category:Animated films based on British novels]]
[[Category:American computer-animated films]]
[[Category:Films about mathematics]]
[[Category:Films about totalitarianism]]
[[Category:2000s English-language films]]
[[Category:Animated films set in the future]]
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